About Gurgaon City

Gurgaon district is one of the 21 districts of Haryana. Gurgaon city is the administrative headquarters of the district. Gurgaon lies on the southern tip of Haryana. On its north, it is bounded by the district of Jhajjar and the Union Territory of Delhi. On the east it touches Faridabad district. On its south it shares the boundary with Rajasthan. The district of Rewari lies on its west.

Historical background

The history of the District of Gurgaon dates back to the Mahabharta days. It is said that Yudhishtra, the eldest of the Pandava brothers, gave this village to Guru Dronacharya, the son of Rishi Bhardwaj (the teacher of the Kauravas and Pandavas) as Guru Dakshisna. Hence it was called ‘Guru-Gram’ or the ‘Village of the Guru’ and this name, over the years, got changed into Guru-Gaon (which means the same) and then into its present name ‘Gurgaon’. Guru Dronacharya’s Well still exists within the Gurgaon city, on the Railway Road. The actual village “GURGAON” is about 1.5 km. away from the Gurgaon city. The main attraction of the old Gurgaon is the temple of SHEETLA MATA, where devotees throng in large numbers on every Monday and Tuesday.

In historical times, Gurgaon has been under the control of a succession of the rulers of Delhi including the Yadavs, Muslims and Marathas. Being in proximity to the capital of India and one of the routes of the Delhi emperors to Rajasthan, the district remained alive in the political events of those days. During the reign of Akbar, the district of Gurgaon fell within the subas of Delhi and Agra and occupied an important and strategic place.

As the Mughal empire declined, there ensued fighting between the neighbouring chiefs. As a result, Gurgaon remained in a state of disturbance till most of it was occupied by the British East India Company in 1803 through the treaty signed by Surji Arjungaon and Sindhia. The British divided the Gurgaon district into parganas which were granted to petty chiefs as jagirs in lieu of military services rendered by them. After the 1857 Rebellion, the district was transferred from the North Western Provinces to Punjab. In 1861, the district was rearranged into five tehsils, that is, Gurgaon, Ferozepur Jhirka, Nuh, Palwal & Rewari.

After independence, under the Provinces and State Order 1950, nine villages of the distrct including Shahjahanpur were transferred to Rajasthan, while the Pataudi Satte was merged with it. It continued to be apart of Punjab until 1966 when Haryana was formed into a separate state.

In 1979, Gurgaon district was divided and a new distrct Faridabad was carved out of it causing Gurgaon to lose the tehsils of Ballabgarh and Palwal.

Political and Administrative divisions

At present Gurgaon is divided into 3 sub-divisions: Gurgaon North, Gurgaon South and Pataudi, which are further divided into 5 tehsils: Gurgaon, Sohna, Pataudi, Farukh Nagar, Manesar. The district has four Vidhan Sabha constituencies, which are: Pataudi, Badshahpur, Gurgaon and Sohna.

The Gurgaon City

Gurgaon is the second largest city of Haryana. It is the industrial and financial center of Haryana. It is located 30 km south of Delhi and is one of Delhi’s four major satellite cities and also the part of the National Capital Region. According to a survey conducted by a business, Gurgaon is considered the best city in India to work and live in.

However, the “Life After Work” index of Business Today gives it the eleventh place among Indian cities, chiefly because of its heavy vehicular traffic and inadequate public transportation. Gurgaon has the 3rd highest per capita income in India after Chandigarh and Mumbai.

Over the last about two decades, Gurgaon has made rapid strides and has become one of metropolitan cities of India. It has emerged as one of the most prominent outsourcing and off shoring centres in the world. It has also become a major centre of telecom companies, prominent among which are Bharti Airtel, Nokia, Motorola, Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson. The face of Gurgaon started changing with the setting up of the Maruti Suzuki industry here in the late 1970’s.

The city has become a hub of private real estate companies also. Companies like DLF, Tata Housing, Unitech Group, Ansals, etc. constructed their offices in Gurgaon and then leased them to other real estate companies. The rapid urbanization made some farmers of Gurgaon millionaires overnight. The Haryana Government has also earned hundreds of crores of rupees by way of taxes from the property developers. Now Gurgaon has third highest number of malls in an Indian city.

Apart from the telecom and real estate companies, a number of other multi-national companies have flocked to Gurgaon as a result of which it has become a major business hub and an important business centre of India.

Garment manufacturing and shopping malls are the other main attractions of Gurgaon. Gurgaon, together with Faridabad generates more than half of Haryana’s income tax revenues. In the health and entertainment Industry also, Gurgaon has made rapid strides. There are a number of ultra-modern hospitals with latest world class facilities. The city boasts of many five star hotels like Optus Sarovar Premiere, Galaxy Hotel, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Lemon Tree Hotels, Trident, Leela Kempinski, Westin, Courtyard Hotel, etc.